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May 29, 2010

Cigarette and Cricket....

DISCLAIMER: This post is only published with the intention of seeing the other side of coin for cigarette, and it's similarity with Cricket
Can you guess anything common in between cigarette and cricket ???
Let me tell you some of them…Cigarette and Cricket, both are mostly loved by men. Cigarette gives pleasure, and cricket entertainment. Age can never be the barrier to use them, and the most important one; they both have the capability to bring a good change in your mood.
But apart from the above benefits, there is one more, which any body uses them, enjoys unintentionally. Cigarette and cricket are actually wonderful networking assets.
Imagine a pan shop, at the corner of a road, with a television at the time of cricket match. You would find a lot of people pushing each other just to catch a glimpse of the score. Some of them would be regular visitors; some would just stop there to peek into the latest score, while some would be the occasional visitors, like this day. Now, a sixer from Yuvraj, some hi-fi’s exchanged, and the enthusiasm combined can just add some more people in your friend’s list.
Take another example of a middle aged man, who had come to a café, and was just tossing his time with smoke, whereas you a geek enjoying your time with friends in the same café, but without a match box, and you just went to him to ask for one stick, and you had this brief conversation with him and came to know that he was an MD of some big company; now one could imagine all the possibilities.
Cigarette and cricket have always been the part of lighter moments of one’s life, or one can say that they are the reason of those moments, sometimes. A cricket match, or a puff of cig shared together can ease out tension between two pals, can remove the hesitation or the burden of age between the two age groups………
I personally do not smoke, but have friends who are regular smokers. Some days before, we (me and one of my smoker friend Amol), came out of a restaurant, were just talking outside, while Amol was searching for matchbox at every possible place in his clothes, but couldn’t find a single stick. Frustrated, he was on the verge of losing his control, but then he noticed a man of our age, sitting and smoking silently on the railing of the hotel. He saw a ray of hope, and so we went close to that man, and silently sat beside him; of course a few distance away. At first, Amol hesitated because of the visible reserved nature of that man, for he didn’t even notice our arrival, but was some where deep drowned in his own thoughts.
But, how long Amol could had resisted the desire to smoke and finally asked in a very light tone, “Boss, do you have a match box”. He turned his face towards us portraying just a-killing-time look; he looked at our faces, mine an innocent face without cig, and while Amol with a cig in his hand, waiting patiently for him to give a match stick. He put his palm forward, I at first didn’t understand, but amazingly Amol got that and handed his cigarette to him. He lighted Amol’s cig, with the one he had, and gave back that to him, and laughed in himself; and there started a new relationship. We talked with him for some time, until the cig was burning, and then we left. We noticed that person one or two times at the nearby shops, exchanged smiles and went away.
Similar incident is with cricket, but it has a bigger group of people, came from different places, with different works, but was coincidentally gathered at one place to watch cricket. We clapped, we enjoyed, we danced, we ate, and we celebrated. This is the power of cricket which everybody enjoys unknowingly.
Cigarette and cricket are one of the best networking assets that I have observed in my life up till now, and this life will go on, and who knows how many of such things are here which each of us enjoy unintentionally.